Lesson 2 for ED 615

Reading Lesson (Observed)

What is the objective of the lesson?

The objective of this lesson was to connect to the Big Question of How do our communities
shape us? Mr. Schmidt’s class has been studying Folk Literature for weeks now and is very
strong in their understanding of Themes, Forms and Purposes of this genre. Together, Mr
Schmidt and I decided that teaching the story of He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit by Virginia
Hamilton would be an ideal follow up to the lesson I taught on Love and Roast Chicken where I
compared a South American trickster tale with the Brer Rabbit story. My aim was reconnect the
story of He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit to the idea of community and conflict
First, to recall prior knowledge, I revisited the lesson I previously taught that included
Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby. I replayed a short bit of a You Tube Video showing Uncle Remus
telling the tale to small children. As a class, we discussed regional dialect and oral tradition of
storytelling.

Candidate’s Name: Jeffrey Hitt Host Teacher’s Name: Aaron Schmidt

School: Skagway Elementary Grade Level/s: 6 # of Students: 9
Date & Time of Lesson: 2/15/2017 8:30a Length of Lesson: 35 minutes
Topic of Lesson: Content Area:
Reading
Folk Literature
Materials: (Include all materials including types of technology used.)
Smart Board, laptop, Youtube video, handouts, textbooks, white board for notes

ALASKA CONTENT STANDARD/S

RL6.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through
particular details; restate and summarize main ideas or events, in correct sequence, after
reading a text.
RL6.6 Determine the author’s purpose and explain how an author develops the point of
view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
RL 6.9 Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres in terms of their approaches
to similar themes and topics.
Cultural Standards
E4. acquaint students with the world beyond their home community in ways that expand
their horizons while strengthening their own identities;

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 E5. recognize the need for all people to understand the importance of learning about other
cultures and appreciating what each has to offer.

TRANSFER GOALS (transferability)

Realizing that lessons learned in folk literature can be applied to everyday life.

 How do you know this is an appropriate lesson for the students? How does the lesson build on or reinforce
what students already know and can do? This sixth-grade class has been studying Folk Literature for weeks
and is very familiar with its elements and themes. They are proficient at recognizing structures and themes of
this genre with little prompting.

 Where will modifications or accommodations to materials, groupings, task, or time be appropriate for
differentiation? Story is read aloud to the class while they follow along in their textbooks. There are frequent
stops to check for comprehension and to see if all are either reading along silently, or engaged in listening.

STAGE ONE – Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings (meaning)

Enduring Understanding(s):
Students will understand that….
Stories that are passed on through the oral
tradition illustrate culture while also helping
to shape culture.
What Essential Questions will be Considered?
How do folktales provide insight into other
cultures and teach us lessons for our daily
lives?

STAGE ONE: Objectives STAGE TWO: Assessments

Analyzing: students should be able to break
down knowledge into discrete parts (to
effectively analyze a situation to solve a
problem)
Synthesize: the ability to bring together ideas
to form new solutions
Evidence of Learning/Accountability -
Formative/Summative/Performance
• Students will be active in think-aloud discussions.
• Students will collaboratively and individually
produce work to show linking the connections
between the story and the big Idea

Knowledge - What students should know…? Assessment(s)/Other Evidence:

Important characteristics of folk literature What examples of folklore have you read?

Skills – What students should be able to do…? Assessment(s)/Other Evidence:

Discussions
Relate folk literature to everyday life in our
community.

STAGE THREE: Opportunities to Learn (Acquisition)

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 Introduction/Hook
Based on the title, what do you think this story might be about? What other story does it remind you of
Which of these animals are native to North America? Which one is not? Where does that animal come
from??

Processes and products for Learning Opportunities
 Read Story aloud, stopping for questions, and
clarifications. Quickly assess comprehension and
check on classroom management.
 Thematic Vocabulary: Ask what the big question
of the unit is (How much do our communities
shape us?) Write big question vocabulary
(Common, influence, involve, isolate,
participation, support) on the white board and
ask students to show examples of this in the text.
(small animals group together, Lion is upsetting
the community) Have student write these
responses on the board for discussion.
Strategies for Differentiation/ Multimodal
Instruction/Universal Design for Learning
 How is this lesson sensitive to cultural and
language issues?
 What accommodations or modifications are
required?
In-Process Check for Understanding
 What specific questions, statements, and
actions will you use to support learning
interactions?
 How will you assess how groups are
functioning?
 How will you track student understanding?

 Critical Thinking: pass out prepared handout with  How will you ensure that the work of all
the following questions on them : maintains rigor and is equally engaging, and
important?
1. Why does he Lion want to see Man?
2. Describe he Lion before and after he meets
Man.
3. Based on he Lions behavior, what lesson does
this story appear to teach? Does this lesson
apply well to modern life? Explain.
Have students share and discuss answers with
the class.

 Community Write on the whiteboard:

What else could the animals do to solve their
problems?
Write responses on the board.
Closure:
Conduct a verbal exit ticket asking what the main
theme/lesson of the story was and how it can be
applied to our community.

Attachments: three (3) artifacts of student work

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Working with Thematic Vocabulary

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Teaching He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit

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Student response to Critical Thinking

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Student Response to Critical Thinking Questions.

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Connection to the Big Question

 Reflection:
Both Mr. Schmidt and I felt that the lesson went well. He enjoyed my reading and trying to
emulate the southern dialect from the text. Starting the lesson with reviewing prior
knowledge was key. It helped the students understand the “oddities” of speech. I also used
think-aloud strategies to make predictions and check for comprehension while I was
reading. The students were all completely engrossed in the story. Before beginning the
reading, I told them that we would be doing a few brief activities to tie the story to real life
and to watch for any community-based vocabulary in the text. This helped with the post-
reading exercises as they already knew that they would be producing some writing and
answers for discussion. This pre-reading, during reading, post-reading adopted from Gill’s
article The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for designing Comprehension Instruction helped
me focus on my main goal of reader comprehension and also gave me and my students a
framework or road map for the lesson.
 The students showed that they met the objectives of the lesson by analyzing and
synthesizing the different parts of the story and relating them to real life and community
issues. This can been seen from the attached pictures showing their involvement in all three

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 activities we did as a class. Our small town is extremely community-minded so this was
something they felt comfortable with. My last short activity was an attempt at Project-
based learning. H ran out of time but I wanted to have students create a real life situation
where a community problem could be solved in a similar way. Together they could tackle a
local problem such garbage, loud noises or parking problems. I would have liked to have
students create their responses in a culminating activity.

Describe how at least one component of this lesson fits with your philosophy of literacy
education (Project 1).

2/23/2017:
As I study and learn more in my practice, my philosophy of literacy education changes and
deepens. First, my general philosophy is based on a quote by George Washington Carver that
“All learning is understanding relationships.” This applies so well to literacy as there are
connections everywhere: text to reader, characters to each other, text to real world, even the
connection between nouns and adjectives, verbs and adverbs. In each of these connections
there is something to be learned. A good teacher can make a student stop, look, analyze, and
understanding these connections to learn what the writing is essentially about. In the case of
this lesson, I focused on the connection between the story and our community. How do you
patiently, skillfully, deal with someone who is full of pride and also a nuisance?
Another concept that is shaping my literacy philosophy is a quote from Frank Serafini:
“There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found
the right book.” This idea is changing the way I look a children’s literature. Initially when
planning this lesson, I feared that the students would not be interested because it was so
“foreign” to them. Of course, they proved me wrong, and were fascinated with the dialect and
the message. One student, a “poor” reader, asked me tell part of the story again. To me this
proves that literature can come alive in students’ minds, if only they can find the texts that
make their hearts and minds come alive.

Project 4: Turn-in Checklist for each lesson (submitted as a new attempt):

x Label each lesson submission as either:

Choice Literacy Lesson (R/W/S), Not Observed

x Reading Lesson, Observed

Writing Lesson, Observed
Spelling or Word Study Lesson, Observed
Vignette (or Choice Literacy Lesson) Not Observed

x Pre-Conference with the host teacher to select lesson goals and guide the planning
x Complete lesson write-up using the ED 615 Lesson Design Template

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x Post-Conference self-analysis incorporating host teacher comments & recommendations
x One (1) aspect of the lesson is linked to own philosophy of literacy
Attachments for Host Teacher Observed Lessons:

x Three (3) Artifacts of student learning

x PDF of Host Teacher’s completed Observation Form from LiveText.

References

Gill, S. R. (2008). The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension

Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 62(2), 106-113. doi:10.1598/rt.62.2.2

Serafini, D. F. (1970, January 01). The Reading Workshop. Retrieved February 13, 2017, from
http://thereadingworkshop.blogspot.com/

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